I hadn't been to Jeff's house since high school, so I hadn't known he'd moved.

And I didn't expect him to be slumming it even more than I had.

But when Deimos finally parked next to Jeff's truck outside his apartment complex on the north side of Peoria and I looked at the run-down, pre-Portal Blitz motel he was living in, I couldn't help but wonder why. He was a C-Ranker. Surely he had enough money to move into some place more comfortable than this. Even at our lowest, the place Jessie and I had lived in had been clean and secure.

This was neither.

I walked to the door with the number 'Twenty-Three' on it. Ellen followed me, glass crunching under her shoes. "What the hell?" she whispered.

I knocked on the door, shrugging. "Let's wait and see. There's almost certainly an explanation."

Jeff opened it a crack, then closed it again. The chain lock rattled as he undid it, then opened it the rest of the way. "Come on in," he said. "I ordered pizza, but it'll be another twenty minutes."

It was a one-bedroom. Once upon a time, it had been a hotel room, and it had probably been decently equipped for that job, but now, it was run down. The mattress looked lumpy and worn thin even through the sheets, and the carpet was stained. The sink housed a hot plate and a small refrigerator—the kind you'd put a few drinks in and keep by your couch. And speaking of couches, there wasn't one—only two rocky, four-legged chairs and the bed.

But none of that caught my eye as much as the suit of armor in the corner.

Ellen saw it, too. "Is that a matching C-Rank set? With shield and sword? What did this cost you, Jeff?"

"Everything. I've been saving for something like it since the moment I awakened. Every cent that didn't go into the basics went into my gear. It's been…hard. But it's almost over."

"That's a ridiculous set-up," Ellen said.

"Yeah. End-of-build armor for anyone stuck at the C-Rank bottleneck. It's got Self-Repairing, Deflecting, and Elemental Resistance enchantments. The shield's even better. Self-Repairing, Deflecting, and Spike. The sword's only got Self-Repairing, but you can't have everything on my budget. I bought it yesterday—the same day I told my landlord I was moving out at the end of the month. Have a seat."

"Great." I sat in one of the chairs. Ellen took the other one, leaving the bed for Jeff. It squeaked violently as he put his weight on it. "What's going on here?"

Jeff sighed. Then he stared at me. "I'm going to answer that question, but first, I want you to think back to middle school. I showed up, the big, awkward new kid. And I was terrified. Not of you or your classmates. No one at Public School Seventeen could take me—not even you, Kade, and don't pretend otherwise."

"No, you were too big, and you never pissed me off," I joked.

"We lived in Carlsbad," Jeff said. "Before the break."

Ellen gasped. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"No one did," Jeff said quietly. "My parents weren't delvers. We got hit with the mandatory evacuation order. They chose Phoenix over Fort Worth. I was pissed. I tried to fight Mom and Dad, but they didn't take the bait. They just explained, over and over, that we couldn't stay. The field of razor-sharp glass outside what was left of Carlsbad and the dozens of funerals we attended—and couldn't find the time to go to—that week before we left sort of helped their side of the argument, too.

"But I left friends behind."

Jeff had never taken loss well. The trap portal hadn't been the first time he'd lost a teammate, and it wouldn't be the last. He'd had days to practice nonchalance about it while I was unconscious, and it had helped. But even after all the practice at losing people, he'd never figured out how to manage it. I understood completely; Jessie and I had lost Dad, and Mom had…gone wherever she'd gone. But Jeff…

"The only way I could talk to them was through letters for a long time, and over time, the letters stopped coming in. By the time Phoenix's internet was stabilized and we could work on restoring Carlsbad Fortress's connection, I didn't remember any of their contact info. It was like they were dead. But not really. And I couldn't do anything about it until my system awakened."

"And the moment it did, you threw yourself into getting back to Carlsbad Fortress and finding your old friends," I finished.

"Yes." Jeff's voice cracked a little. "Everything I've done has been to get into one of these relief convoys. I sacrificed ranking up past C to get there as quickly as I could, because C-Rank is the minimum for a Carlsbad Fortress visit. I put every cent I earned into my gear, potions, and anything that could help me rank up faster. No guilds would take me because I refused to be a long-term investment. I just wanted C-Rank. That's it.

"Now I've got it, but that's not going to be enough. I need people I can trust. That means Yasmin, you, and Ellen," he said. "And of the three of you, only Yasmin's close enough to get there without help."

"So, that's why you've been trying to 'pick me up,'" Ellen said.

Jeff nodded. "Exactly. If we had a consistent team, we could push harder—especially if I could convince Sophia to come back. We need a healer, bad."

I stood up and inspected Jeff's C-Rank armor more closely. It looked like plate at first glance, but it was really a fine scale mail—thousands and thousands of scales half the size of my pinky nail, overlapped three deep. I touched it, lifted an arm, and watched the joints between the scales move almost like liquid. It was, by far, the nicest armor I'd ever touched. Only The Light of Dawn, Deborah Callahan, and a few other A and S-Rankers I'd met had better gear.

"And your plan is, what? Power-leveling in portals?" Ellen asked. "Because Kade has a major problem if that's the strategy you're going to use. Have you told him yet?"

"No. Maybe? Jeff, did I mention the Path to you?"

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Your super-special thing with the God of Thunder? Yeah. What about it?"

I sighed. "It's locking me out of learning Laws through skill rank-ups. I need to find another source of them. And I don't know what that looks like yet."

"So you're stuck?" Jeff asked. His voice cracked again. "After all this, you're not going to make it."

"I said I don't know what that looks like yet. We're working on it," I said, trying not to be annoyed.

"Let's assume Kade figures this out," Ellen interrupted, "and focus on what the other three of us need to be doing. You're where you need to be, Jeff. Yasmin's, what? Mid-D? She'll make it. But I'm going to need help. A lot of help. Right now, I'm about to hit D-Rank, but even if I do, I'll need to be really efficient if I want to get to C in a month."

"Twenty-eight days," Jeff said.

"Yeah, that. So, let's focus up and figure out a plan."

The plan, it turned out, was shockingly simple.

Whether I found a new source of Laws in the next four weeks or not, I still needed skill levels; I wanted to be at the cusp of C-Rank just in case a solution presented itself at the last minute. Ellen and Yasmin both needed skill levels and ranks, too, and Jeff's C-Rank and my D qualified our team for C-Rank portals in non-emergency situations if we filled out with another D-Ranker and an E—or two Ds.

Unfortunately, Kurt and Alex were both busy. They'd been recruited by the Coyotes. I didn't blame them. Guilds were the way to go for most delvers, and there wasn't a reason for them to abandon ship. But that did leave us in a bind. And the situation only got worse as Jeff worked through his contacts and didn't hit on anyone.

"I do have…one person I could call," I said after a minute. "He's probably skill E-Rank, and I don't trust him with most of our secrets—especially with Cheddar and Pepperoni, Ellen—but he had a lot of potential as a different variety of support, and his gear was top-tier. Are we comfortable with running a double-support build?"

Jeff shook his head slowly. "That's a lot of weight to carry. If he can only fight as well as Yasmin, we'd be hard-pressed to make it through portals. Four combatants, two of which are high-burst and lower sustain, isn't going to cut it."

"I'm more worried about losing out on Cheddar and Pepperoni," Ellen said. "Think he'd go for the same lie we fed Yasmin and the others?"

"Maybe. He's pretty sharp, though. There's something off about him, and I want to figure out what it is," I said.

Jeff went back to his phone. He typed for a while, and a message appeared on my phone—and on Ellen's.

Jeff Carlson: Low Priority: Hello, fellow delvers. I'm, as you might have heard a few dozen times, putting together a team. Right now, I have a tank, support, mage, and striker/fighter hybrid. I'm looking for two more delvers in the E to C-Rank range interested in pushing into high-D and low-to-mid C portals. If you're interested, let me know. Preference is for sustained damage-dealers or healers.

"I don't want to bring in someone we can't trust," Jeff said after the message sent. "Let's let that sit for a few hours and see who takes the bait. We can pick some good people from the list, then screen them individually. If we get a healer or an archer, it'll be worth it. In the meantime, my phone says that the pizza should be arriving any minute. That means it's time for a subject change."

"Okay," Ellen said. "Kade, how's the guild stuff going?"

"According to Jessie, we have a little over thirty-five thousand dollars in the bank, and we need…about two million to comfortably buy and start renovating the old GC center in Surprise. So…we're a long way from making our guild."

"That's what I figured," Jeff said. "After we go to Carlsbad, I'll be able to contribute to the guild coffers a little more."

"It's okay," I said, staring at the immaculate scale mail and round shield on their stands, then at the beaten-up motel room around us. "You've had your own priorities."

"I have. And, Kade, I'm not stopping until I know they're safe. It's been almost eight years since the Carlsbad portal break opened, and the last letter I got was three years after that. I've waited for five years. I can't wait any longer; I'm going to find my people, and I'm going to make sure they're safe. All of them."

The next morning, Jeff sent the results of his fishing.

Out of all the candidates, there were only a handful that met our requirements. One of them was an archer whose skill set reminded me of Carter, the Roadrunner archer who'd attacked us in the wall world. I couldn't imagine him coming after us a second time—not after the beating we'd given him—but I vetoed that candidate on principle.

We eliminated close to a dozen others for guild ties—especially to the Roadrunners. Most of that was me not wanting to work with the guilds at all. After stepping out of an S-Rank portal in front of a handful of the most powerful men and women in Phoenix, it was only a matter of time before one of them got a recruitment hook in me. I'd say no, of course, but the longer I could avoid them, the better.

Jeff was holding out for a healer, but was willing to accept an archer. So, naturally, we ended up with neither. A single fighter made the cut. No one else. He was a high D-Rank with a history of successful D-Rank portal clears, looking for his first C-Rank clear so he could start pushing up more. Equally importantly, he refused to say anything about any of those clears except what was in the public record. He was a dual-wielding spear-and-dagger fighter. A perfect fit in many ways.

But that left the sixth slot open. And he had no one that he both trusted and who could fill the job he thought we needed.

Jeff: Tell me everything about why you don't trust this guy, Kade.

Kade: We ran a Rime portal. He seemed like an annoying fresh E-Rank, but every once in a while, he'd do something an E-Ranker shouldn't be able to do. The GC people called him sir when we got out. And he gave up a D-Rank core when he didn't have to—and when it would have been beneficial for him to take it.

Kade: I'm not sure what he's lying about, exactly. But I don't think he's an E-Ranker.

Ellen: A rank-hider? Those guys are dangerous. Absolutely not.

Kade: No, he was definitely E-Rank when he signed on for that portal. The guys in charge wouldn't have taken him if they thought he was stronger. And if he's lying about it, I don't think he's hiding his rank because he's a killer. I think he's something else, I just don't know what yet.

Jeff: Can we trust him?

Kade: If Ellen and I refine our lies…I think so.

Jeff: Call him up.

I cleared my throat and looked up a number. Then I dialed it.

It rang three times, then picked up on the fourth. A car engine revved in the background, then a voice cut in as the phone's sound suppression kicked in. "Zeke here. Who's this?"

"Kade. We ran a Rime portal a while back."

"Oh, Kade! You're the guy who saved my life in there! My dad wanted to thank you, but I couldn't track you down. How did you find me?"

"The delver registry." I rubbed my temple. The last thing I wanted was the migraine that came from running with Zeke, but he technically filled enough of a healing role, and I'd convinced Jeff that his Power of Friendship aura would give the team enough of an edge to make up for the double support. I'd made my bed, and now I'd have to lie in it. "Hey, listen, a friend of mine is putting together a team. How would you like to run some high-D and low-C portals with us?"

The speaker was quiet for a few seconds. Then it crackled to life. "That'd be great! I'm about to hit D-Rank myself, so maybe this is fate bringing us back together, Kade. When do we start? I'll see if Dad wants to buy me some upgrades before we get into the portal. He just got a promotion, so now he's managing the Wickenberg canal and involved with the Central Arizona Rebuild Project. Super important stuff. If it works, Phoenix can start expanding and—"

"We start tomorrow. I'll send your contact info to Jeff. He's the team lead. I've gotta go, but I'll talk to you later, Zeke."

"Yeah, sounds great. Anyway, I'll see if Dad wants to throw some money at me for new gear, since I'm about to hit D-Rank and he wants to make sure I'm at my peak safety-wise."

"No, really, I've gotta go," I said. "I'm meeting with Jeff soon."

"Okay. See you soon, Kade. It'll be fun to run another portal or three with you. Or five."

I hung up, already regretting everything about that brief conversation. Then a thought hit me. Ellen was going to absolutely kill Zeke.

Either that or she was going to kill me for bringing him along.

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